Massachusetts says it is working to inspect overdue escalators

David Riley

Thursday

Apr 28, 2011 at 12:01 AMApr 28, 2011 at 11:59 AM

Expired inspection certificates mark more than 100 of the 961 escalators in malls, office buildings and other public facilities across Massachusetts, but a state agency says it has stepped up shutting down the devices when property owners fail to get them checked.

Expired inspection certificates mark more than 100 of the 961 escalators in malls, office buildings and other public facilities across Massachusetts, but a state agency says it has stepped up shutting down the devices when property owners fail to get them checked.

The state Department of Public Safety keeps a database that tracks its inspections of every elevator and escalator in Massachusetts. It lists 216 moving stairways with inspection certificates that have expired or were set to run out as of March 31, including stores at malls in Braintree, Brockton and Natick.

However, the database includes some escalators that have been out of operation for years and others whose owners are taking the proper steps to make required repairs and get the devices recertified, said Thomas Gatzunis, the state’s public safety commissioner.

Still, by Gatzunis’ count, about 117 escalators in the state have not been inspected or recertified as safe by the required date. This is largely because the law places the burden on property owners to schedule inspections, and some simply have not done so, he said.

“It really has to be done in cooperation and conjunction with the owners,” Gatzunis said. “They really do need to apply.”

In an effort to resolve the backlog, state inspectors had been tracking down escalators with certifications expired more than two years, marking them as closed with a placard and shutting them down, Gatzunis said.

Since hiring a dozen more inspectors last fall, the department is stepping up its approach.

“If they’re more than one year out of compliance, we will go out and do compliance checks and placard the unit if we can gain access to it,” Gatzunis said.

The department also recently got the authority to charge owners whose inspections are overdue a $200 fine. Gatzunis said shutdowns are generally a last resort.

The state’s handling of escalator inspections has come under scrutiny since the death of 4-year-old Mark DiBona of Dudley, who fell from one of the devices March 11 at Sears in the Auburn Mall.

The state has suspended two inspectors who examined the unit in December and reportedly failed to note a larger-than-allowed gap between the side of the escalator and the nearest wall. Inspectors also recently checked every escalator in the state for the same type of problem.

A report or follow-up action from that sweep is coming shortly, Gatzunis said recently.

After a review of paper inspection reports for 188 escalators at major shopping malls, the Boston Globe recently reported that only 44 had received annual inspections from 2008 to 2010.

Information in the Department of Public Safety’s much broader database is compiled from inspection reports on all escalators and the more than 13,000 elevators in the state. Gatzunis said it is largely up to date, though a version provided to GateHouse Media newspapers may not reflect inspections or certifications carried out since mid-March.

For example, while the database shows certifications for escalators in the Showcase Cinema Deluxe at Patriot Place in Foxborough expired in mid-January, a spokesman for owner the Kraft Group said the devices were inspected and recertified in mid-March. Kraft sent its request for an inspection in January.

Patriot Place also checked all its escalators after the incident at the Auburn Mall, spokesman Stacey James said.

Nordstrom spokeswoman Tara Darrow said inspectors in April visited at least one store listed as expired and OK'd its escalators. In addition to monthly checks, the company also checked escalators in every store for the same problem as the Auburn Mall, she said.

Some property owners dispute information in the state database. For example, escalators at seven train stations in Boston and one in Cambridge’s Central Square are listed with certifications that expired last year, but Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority spokesman Joe Pesaturo said all are up to date.

Kone, a private company contracted to service MBTA escalators, provided dates when it says each escalator was inspected and certified – most late last year or in January, according to Pesaturo.

“Despite very heavy passenger volume, long hours in operation and exposure to inclement weather conditions, MBTA escalators have a 98.5 percent availability rate,” Pesaturo said in an email. “We gladly welcome comparisons of our performance record to any other U.S. transit agencies of comparable size.”

A Macy’s spokesman said that while the database lists stores in Saugus and Natick with escalators that expired last year, they were both approved in May 2010.

In a report last year, the state auditor’s office said the Department of Public Safety said the database, which is used to manage compliance with elevator and escalator inspections, was sometimes outdated or inaccurate. Overall, the audit recommended better follow-up on delinquent inspections.

Gatzunis said the department will have a new database system up and running this year, most likely by September.

Several large retailers or shopping malls with escalators listed as expired did not return calls or emails for comment. Simon Property Group, which owns the Auburn Mall and a dozen others in the state, said in a prepared it rigorously monitors and maintains its elevators and escalators.

It contracts with Kone to track and arrange inspections, and customers and employees are not at risk, it said. The company declined further comment. Its properties include malls in Marlborough, Braintree, Watertown, Chestnut Hill, Saugus, Danvers, Hyannis, Burlington and North Attleboro.

State law requires escalators to be inspected annually. Inspectors can provide a certificate if everything looks fine or issue an order for repairs to be completed within 90 days. About 116 escalators in the state are in the latter situation now, Gatzunis said.

An inspector can shut an escalator down altogether if it has a major safety problem.

Since hiring a dozen new inspectors last fall, the Department of Public Safety now has its largest inspection staff – 51 people – since taking over elevator and escalator checks from municipalities in the ‘80s, Gatzunis said. Short staffing was a problem in keeping up with inspections in the past, he said.

In response to last year’s audit, the department noted that the state has broadened the definition of “elevator” twice in the last five years, and that new construction was adding new units to inspect each year.

Ken Smith, an Iowa escalator consultant and expert, said states in the U.S. have a patchwork of different approaches to handling inspections, making a consistent approach hard to find.

“It’s kind of difficult because almost everybody follows a different kind of procedure,” he said.

(David Riley can be reached at 508-626-3919 or driley@wickedlocal.com.)

Download:

Check out the state's database of escalators and when they were last inspected, but please read the note of caution in the sidebar: Download spreadsheet here

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.